Walk into the Visitor Center at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and you may think you’re still outside. Thirteen life-sized birds of the refuge — ranging from the delicate ruby-throated hummingbird to the sturdy black-and-white wood stork — soar overhead in the 40-foot entrance tower. Around them, four massive murals provide habitat the birds seem to melt into.

Workers at the refuge installed the exhibit late last month at the direction of Monica Harris, visitor services manager. The project was her brainchild, though it was simpler at first. She envisioned only blue sky backing up the birds. A refuge volunteer, Arnie Weisbrot, persuaded her to add the habitat murals and helped figure out how to get that done without breaking the bank.

When working directly on the walls proved too costly, Charlotte-based muralist Robin Puckett offered to create the four murals, each 8 x 16.5 feet, on canvas. She worked first in her childrens’ high school readying the canvases for paint. When the school’s floors had to be waxed, she moved the art back to her house, rigging up eyebolts in the ceiling of her great room to accommodate the murals.

Puckett visited the refuge, then worked from photographs and internet searches to recreate the habitats of the refuge: a wood stork rookery, wood ducks in a live oak tree, a hardwood forest with woodpeckers nesting in a tree cavity and a marsh habitat in which an anhinga dries itself. In-house carpenters, electricians and managers at the refuge created frames that fit over existing acoustic panels. After squeezing everything through the front doors, they fit it all in place.

As for the wooden three-dimensional birds, they aren’t just flying overhead. Two male painted buntings fight over territory in one corner. A wood stork carries a stick back to its nest, And a bald eagle dives to attack the poor wood duck below it.

They are the work of Wisconsin artist Kim Russell, who said she’s thrilled to have her birch plywood creations exhibited in a public place.

A child of the Chicago suburbs, Russell came to appreciate nature as an adult, and she’s eager to share.

“When I do birds it’s to share that enthusiasm for nature around us,” she said.

The exhibit cost just over $8,000 with most of the money coming from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant. A smaller portion came from leftover building funds, Harris said. A local group, Friends of the Savannah Coastal Wildlife Refuges, chipped in money to purchase both the canvas and the special stainless steel wiring to hang the birds; fishing line was considered and rejected because it would deteriorate in sunlight.

Visitors are already staring up in wonder at the exhibit. Harris is planning to use the birds not just to entertain, but to teach.

“We’re hoping we could have kids look up and learn to focus binoculars,” Harris said.

Russell agrees there’s a lot to learn. One day she spent two hours completing the 4-mile wildlife drive at the refuge.

“I saw so much,” she said. “I saw so many birds I had been drawing and studying for years. My husband said he just wanted to see an alligator and he saw so many.”

THE VISITOR CENTER

The Savannah National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center is located on U.S. 17 in Jasper County, S.C., about 6 miles north of downtown Savannah and 7 miles south of Hardeeville. The 6,600-square-foot building houses offices and features interactive, museum-quality exhibits, an auditorium and a nature store staffed by the nonprofit Friends of the Savannah Coastal Wildlife Refuges. The Visitor Center is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

THE SAVANNAH NATIONAL WILDLIFE COASTAL REFUGES

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge is one of seven refuges administered by the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex. This chain of national wildlife refuges extends from Pinckney Island NWR near Hilton Head Island to Wolf Island NWR near Darien, Ga. Between these lie Savannah (the largest unit in the complex), Wassaw, Tybee, Harris Neck and Blackbeard Island refuges. Together they span a 100-mile coastline and total more than 56,000 acres. The Savannah Coastal Refuges are administered from headquarters located at the visitor’s center.

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